Denise Salcedo confirms that she was in talks for a job with WWE and details the surge of energy that follows a tough rejection.
Denise Salcedo has been featured on WWE programming such as WWE Watch Alongs in the past. Now, she is opening up about being in the running for a job with the sports entertainment juggernaut and how The eventual rejection lit a fire under her that has renewed her passion.
“I have had talks with WWE,” Salcedo confirms to Cageside Seats’ Shakiel Mahjouri. “This is not known information, so you’re actually the first person to hear about this. I was up for a job with them probably between December 2020 and March 2021. They had me do a lot of different stuff for them to see where we were going to end up here. For about a six-month period I was aiming at getting hired by WWE. It was my dream. I was so excited, everything was going great and they ended up going in a different direction. I won’t sit here and lie to you, that hurt and it hurt like hell.
“I knew for a fact that I was doing something that nobody else was. I knew for a fact that they made a mistake. When they called me and said, ‘We love you, but we’re going a different direction.’ I knew they had made a mistake. But I will tell you this, Shakiel, it lit such a fire underneath me where I was like, ‘My dream job just said ‘no’ to me, what am I going to do?’ The second I got that ‘no’ — the day after because I was sad the rest of the day,” she chuckles. “The day after, I just went into this mode of ‘do something and do something more than you’ve done before.’”
Part of doing more than she did before included reaching out to new places and fielding new offers.
“So I started reaching out to people, I started pitching myself to people. Within that week I was having meetings with people, I was listening to job offers,” she explains. “Once you take away that specific vision of what you want, all of a sudden you start to see more opportunities that could come about. I will tell you, by the end of that month I had about four new shows added to my schedule. I had more money coming into my account.
“From March 2021 to now, we’re in September, I’ve seen this growth in my career and it was all because of that one moment where they said ‘no’ to me. Seeing everything that happened since then, it’s one of those things where I think it worked out for the best. I don’t know if that opportunity will ever come about again, but I am kind of happy that they passed on me right now because I think I can offer so much more than the position I was up for.”
Ultimately, Denise says that despite her rejection from WWE, she's enjoying being freelance and doing her own thing for multiple different promotions
“I feel so happy that these opportunities have come my way. I’m starting to see more avenues and paths that I can take. Different things that I can do,” Salcedo says. “I love being freelance. I love being my own boss. I love being a creator. I still love that I get to work with all these different wrestling promotions.
“I’m a huge believer in ‘everything happens for a reason’ and I’m a huge believer in destiny,” she concludes. “I do hope to make some WWE appearances later on in the future. I would really love to because I still want that relationship with them. At the end of the day, I grew up a WWE fan and that’s always been a bucket list dream. But I don’t want to necessarily stop doing everything else that I’m doing... I had been so adamant about making so much noise that they can’t ignore you. Ever since I got that ‘no,’ I’ve gotten louder. It really, really lit a fire under me. There are positives to rejection. You just have to pull it out yourself. It takes a lot.”
Denise Salcedo will be working with Mission Pro Wrestling in the coming future and you can see her every Monday night review and Monday Night Raw with Sean Ross Sapp here on Fightful.
